Related Items

President Barack Obama urged Ohio State’s graduating class today to “participate” and “persevere” in a brand of citizenship that “is a harder, higher road to take” but it “leads to a better place.”

Donning an appropriate scarlet tie under his ceremonial commencement garb, Obama delivered the school’s commencement speech to about 8,000 graduates on hand and an estimated crowd of 57,186 during a sun-splashed spring graduation at Ohio Stadium.

Speaking of a citizenship in which today’s graduates “participate” by voting, if nothing else, and by persevering through tragedy and cynicism, Obama said this kind of citizenship “is how we built this country – together.

“It’s the question that President Kennedy posed to the nation at his inauguration,” Obama said. “It’s the dream that Dr. King invoked. It does not promise easy success or immediate progress – but it has led to success, and it has led to progress. And it has to continue with you.

“Where we’re going should give you hope,” he said later. “Because while things are still hard for a lot of people, you have every reason to believe that your future is bright."

As he spoke of a hopeful future, Obama cited "the once-dying American auto industry" as being "on pace for its strongest performance in 20 years," noting the importance to Ohioans and touching on a campaign theme from last year.

Obama, who became the third sitting U.S. president to deliver Ohio State’s commencement address, quoted another former Buckeyes commencement speaker – George W. Bush – who said in 2002 that “America needs more than taxpayers, spectators, and occasional voters … America needs full-time citizens.”

Obama, no stranger to campus goers because of his myriad policy and campaign speeches in the run-up to his re-election last year, touched on the political and policy issues facing Americans: from gun control (he specifically mentioned last year’s deadly shooting at Chardon High School, in addition to Newtown) to income inequality and the middle class; climate change to Washington gridlock.

Inaction, Obama said, is “how we end up with lobbyists who set the agenda; and policies detached from what middle-class families face every day; the well-connected who publicly demand that Washington stay out of their business – and then whisper in government’s ear for special treatment that you don’t get.

“That’s how a small minority of lawmakers get cover to defeat something the vast majority of their constituents want.”

Today’s message was one of the graduates taking personal responsibility to tackle these challenges.

“We’re blessed to live in the greatest nation on Earth,” he said. “But we can always be greater. We can always aspire to something more. That doesn’t depend on who you elect to office. It depends on you, as citizens, how big you want us to be, how badly you want to see these changes for the better.

“And look at all that America has already accomplished. Look at how big we’ve been. I dare you, Class of 2013, to do better.”

University President E. Gordon Gee called Ohio State “Lincoln’s university” and read messages from graduating students to Obama on stage. He reminded the crowd that Obama had previously spoken at a University of Michigan graduation, but said “we all make mistakes” and this was a moment of “redemption.”

Long lines of people snaked around the Horseshoe hours before the noon ceremony began to accommodate heightened security.

Paul Goldman of Mansfield said his son, Nick, graduated with a communications degree, two years after his older brother, Dan, graduated with a degree in accounting and a master's degree in business administration.

"We got an upgrade from (Speaker of the House John) Boehner two years ago to Obama this year," Paul Goldman said as he and his father, Bruce, waited beneath the stands about 10:30 a.m.

Bruce Goldman of Palm Springs, Calif., who just turned 90, didn't see Obama's appearance quite the same way. "It's an honor for the president to be here," he said, but then added that the president is honored to be in the presence of so many Ohio State graduates, many of whom helped make his reelection to a second term possible.

Obama, who was given an honorary degree from Ohio State at today's event, was accompanied on Air Force One from Washington by Democratic U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty of Columbus, who had been a senior vice president at Ohio State before leaving to run for Congress. Obama and Beatty were greeted at the airport by Columbus Mayor Michael B. Coleman and about 50 others.

The Buckeye State is near and dear to Obama and his political fortunes – he won in the key swing state in both 2008 and again last year, the second time by about 3 percentage points – and he’s often used Ohio State to show his love.

Obama was on campus one year ago today, when he formally kicked off his campaign with 14,000 supporters in Ohio State’s 20,000-seat Value City Arena. He gave an energy speech on campus in March 2012, made a brief stop at the Ohio Union in August – where the famous pictures of Obama and others spelling O-H-I-O both correctly and incorrectly originated – and held a campaign rally on the Oval in October with musical guest will.i.am and a crowd of 15,500.

“One time, I stopped at Sloppy’s [sic] to grab some lunch,” Obama recalled, immediately correcting himself and restating the restaurant as “Sloopy’s.”

“Many of you were still eating breakfast. At 11:30. On a Tuesday. So to the class of 2013, I’ll offer my first piece of advice: enjoy it while you can.”

This was Obama’s first trip to Ohio since wrapping up his vigorous re-election effort in the state on Nov. 5 in a Columbus rally at Nationwide Arena featuring Bruce Springsteen and rapper Jay-Z.

Gerald Ford was the other sitting president to speak at Ohio State’s graduation in 1974.